Sovereign Bones: New Native American Writing, Vol II [Paperback]

Eric Gansworth (Editor)

Book Description

Publication Date: November 2, 2007

Sovereign Bones is an exploration of indigenous peoples and how they have managed to maintain separate identities, in spite of their assimilation into the broader American culture. Edited by Eric Gansworth, this collection of original writing focuses on the key role that writers and visual artists have played in the struggle of native peoples to retain their individual identities. In personal essays, memoir, and historical reflections, each writer explores the ways in which they arrived at their work and how they have retained a traditional way of life in that work. Taken as a whole, Sovereign Bones is a testimony to the resilience of indigenous cultures and the integral contributions artists make to that survival. Featured authors include: Marijo Moore, Louise Erdrich, Alex Jacobs, Heid Erdrich, Maurice Kenny, Diane Glancy, Jeanette Weaskus, Simon Ortiz.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Emphasizing strategies for maintaining an indigenous cultural identity within the dominant society's constant assault on tradition and memory, this anthology of contemporary Native American writing is a sequel to 2003's Genocide of the Mind, which emphasized the assimilation of indigenous peoples. In more than 30 autobiographical essays and personal reflections, writers, educators and artists representing a wide variety of tribal affiliations address such battlegrounds as history, poverty, language and image-making in contemporary struggles for indigenous identity and self-representation. The volume also includes a selection of artwork that echoes the ideas advanced by these writers. In a spirit of resolve that Simon J. Ortiz describes as resistance against disappearance, the pieces invariably emphasize intergenerational dependence, as in Scott Richard Lyons's charming firsthand appreciation of the life and career of the late Vine Deloria. Also shown is the individual's need to reconfigure tradition within the present, as in Annabel Wong's reflections on photography and self-portraiture or Sherman Alexie's episodic unauthorized autobiography. As Alexie notes, So much has been taken from us that we hold onto the smallest things left with all the strength we have. And yet, as this illuminating volume amply demonstrates, there remain sovereign worlds to discover, reconfigure and repossess. (Nov.)
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Review

"Addressing the genocide of Native American cultural identity over the past 100 years, this collection of 35 essays by authors representing more than 25 tribal nations is at once eye-opening, brutally frank, and ultimately optimistic."

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Product Details

• Paperback: 331 pages
• Publisher: Nation Books (November 2, 2007)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1568583575
• ISBN-13: 978-1568583570
• Product Dimensions: 8 x 5.5 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 9.6 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #595,267 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

3 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars e pluribus, pluribus, May 4, 2008

By 

Bill Coan (Hortonville, Wisconsin) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)   

This review is from: Sovereign Bones: New Native American Writing, Vol II (Paperback)

The essays, stories, and poems in this collection are too varied to characterize as a group, and that's as it should be. Subjects include language, basketball, cooking, reading, travel, artificial joints, computers, and portraiture. The writers confront questions of history, culture, and identity. They bring profoundly personal perspectives to their work. Their pieces jostle against each other as they jostle the reader.